The technology relates to a vehicle traveling control apparatus that controls traveling of an own vehicle.
In vehicles such as automobiles, traveling controls such as a lane-keeping control and a follow-up traveling control have been known. The lane-keeping control recognizes a traveling environment around an own vehicle and allows for keeping of a traveling position of the own vehicle at a middle position of a lane. The follow-up traveling control also recognizes the traveling environment and allows for traveling while following a preceding vehicle ahead of the own vehicle. The recognition of the traveling environment of the own vehicle may be performed with, for example, a camera and a radar unit each mounted on the own vehicle.
In such a vehicle traveling control, a technique has been proposed that assists or automatically performs movement of the own vehicle to an adjacent lane by changing a traveling route of the own vehicle. The assistance or the automatic performance of the movement of the own vehicle to the adjacent lane is to be made at a time when the own vehicle overtakes a preceding vehicle traveling at a speed lower than that of the own vehicle, or at a time when a driver operates a direction indicator, or a winker, with an intention of changing lanes.
For example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2009-294943 discloses a technique of assisting the lane change. The disclosed technique of assisting the lane change is performed by: determining a vehicle traveling circumstance of a target lane into which the own vehicle is to proceed; determining whether there is any other vehicle that may possibly proceed into the target lane from a position other than the traveling lane along which the own vehicle travels; and setting guide information based on the vehicle in the target lane and the vehicle at a position other than the target lane.